It
by Draikinator
Summary: AU set after "The Human Factor" where Project Damacles is successful. Knockout is not happy with his new coworker. Drabble written while I ignored the budget committee because i would rather write transformers fanfiction than actually participate in a meeting


okay tl;dr i had a budget meeting today but it was really boring and i didnt care so i wrote this. congratulations this is the result of boredom and drabbling in my notepad while some shmuck tells me for the hundredth time this month we need to outsource more files. do enjoy but do not expect terribly much.

* * *

"Did you hear me, Knockout?"

Knockout had heard his lord, but found himself unable to respond. His optics were swimming, the colours too bright, the movements too fast. He had to reboot his voicebox twice.

"Yes, my lord. Cylas-" he said with a nod, "Welcome to the Decepticons."

Breakdown's faceplate smiled back at him.

"Thank you, Knockout. I look forward to a long and successful alignment."

Knockout returned the smile, shoving down the rage and hurt and boiling hot fury building in his spark.

"As do I."

* * *

The only sound was the whirring of his own engines, a quiet background noise that offset the thick, choking silence of his medical bay.

There would be no witty banter with his assistant today. Just as there had not been yesterday. Would not be tomorrow.

The door slid open, and a Vehicon leaned in.

"Sir, I have injured my arm and-"

Knockout's optics darted to him, narrow and cold.

The door shut.

* * *

He held the energon ration in his servos delicately, watching Breakdown's corpse as it moved toward the ration dispenser. A Vehicon went to speak to it, doubtless not having been told that it was not Breakdown, and the corpse shoved it away roughly. The Vehicon looked startled and confused, and skittered off, out the doors.

Knockout crushed the cube in his servo and dropped the empty container to the floor.

* * *

The Autobots had been merciless over the past few weeks. Killing their pets with Project Damacles had really put a damper on their attitudes. The raids were frequent now, and the Autobots showed none of their prior hesitancy in killing. It seemed Project Damacles had been the final straw.

He pulled the groundbridge control down behind Breakdown's corpse as it strut out triumphantly.

"Hah! Knocked an arm off of that little blue dame," it said and slapped him on the back.

Knockout smiled pleasantly as it walked away.

* * *

"Why, hello, Doctor," Breakdown's corpse purred as it leaned against the doorframe of Knockout's medbay, "I seem to have damaged my armour in that last scuffle. I could use some repairs."

It lifted up one of Breakdown's arms, showing the torn open plating and the sparking interior.

He gestured to his medical berth, and Breakdown's corpse laid itself on it.

He touched Breakdown's plating delicately, before working at the hinges so he could take it off for welding.

"You know, this body really is incredible. A direct hit and it didn't even sever the main hydraulics!" It said, praising Breakdown's body. That it was living in.

Knockout smiled, "Yes, I'm aware. I'm quite familiar with it's blueprints," Knockout said as he pulled off the shoulder plating, "This is the thickest armour on the ship, outside of Megatron."

"I'm quite fortunate then," Breakdown's body said.

* * *

The Vehicon on his table shuddered.

"Uh- sir- can't you turn off my receptors before you-"

"Shut up," Knockout said, and jabbed his scalpel into the burnt out hole in the Vehicon's arm. It cried out before nipping the sound. The way it was still trembling suggested it had shut down its vocal processors.

He touched the frayed edges of the burn delicately with sharp fingers.

He picked up the welder.

"Sir? That can't possibly be necessa-"

The Vehicon had onlined its voicebox. Good.

He leaned into the wound with the welder.

"I'm only cauterizing it," he said, gently, as the Vehicon screamed.

* * *

It walked heavily. It never seemed quite certain what its own footsteps would do.

Sometimes Knockout would follow it down hallways, watching the corpse stumble amongst them, so certain of itself. Knockout would hold datapads in front of him or make excuses of places he was going- but he was watching it.

Always watching it.

Breakdown's body was alive, but Breakdown was not in it.

It was filled with parasitic vermin. It was contaminated. It was unclean. It was infected.

* * *

"Knockout, Cylas has alerted me to the fact you have been following him recently," Megatron said sternly in his usual low growl. Knockout smiled.

"I am only concerned for his welfare, my lord. Breakdown's body had had some time to begin breaking down before our new friend put himself into it- I only want to ensure that medical expertise is on hand should some part of him fail unexpectedly. After all, his fleshy core is so… Fragile."

Megatron narrowed his optics.

"You are confined to the medical bay until further notice, Knockout."

Knockout smiled.

"Of course, my lord. You _are_ wise."

"Quit being so _creepy_," Starscream cried finally, in that shrill, high pitched whine Knockout was so accustomed to. Knockout turned toward him briefly.

"If you require any medical assistance, you will know where to find me."

* * *

He had just plucked the last file from his cabinet and neatly dropped it on the floor, when the doors slid open and Breakdown's corpse looked in. Its optics widened in surprise.

"Oh, good! My assistant," Knockout said, clapping his servos together, "as you can see, my files are all a mess. I need some asisstance with the organization around here," he said, standing in a pile of file folders an datapads.

The corpse groaned warily and took a step back, "I'm… Going to send some Vehicons up here to help you."

"They do have smaller fingers," Knockout said amiably, stepping towards the other cabinet. A datapad crumpled beneath his pedes, the piles of files spilling over eachother as he waded through them. The door slid shut.

* * *

The Vehicon stationed in the medical bay eyed him cautiously. Knockout shrugged.

"You're such a poor assistant! Really now, I can't buff my own back. Lend me a hand, won't you?"

The Vehicon shook its head deliberately.

Knockout sighed and set the buffer on the table, before returning to his work. The synth-en formula was unstable. He really needed a test subject.

He looked at the Vehicon and raised an eyebrow.

* * *

Knockout frowned. The Vehicon was still trying to scream. He'd torn out its voicebox first, but its throat cabling was still sparking and chugging, pouring out the green synth-en he'd worked so hard to develop.

It was a poor assistant. Nothing like Breakdown.

He picked up the welder and pressed it against its throat, cauterizing the whole area shut. That was much better.

It continued to thrash and tremble violently, though. Obviously the compound required further study.

* * *

"What the hell is going on in here?!" Breakdown's corpse cried from the doorway. Knockout paused to look at it curiously. One of the Vehicons tied to the medical berth raised an arm toward the door, but of course it was unable to vocalize.

The corpse stumbled backwards and Knockout frowned. That wasn't right. Breakdown's faceplate should not make expressions like that. Breakdown was not afraid of anything.

Knockout stepped towards the door and the corpse, and it turned to run awkwardly down the hall. Luckily, Knockout had already been holding his energon prod, and simply jabbed the corpse before it could get very far. It fell to the floor in a heap with a shriek.

"You know, you don't even really look that much like him," Knockout sighed after a moment, kicking the corpse onto its back as it blinked up at him blearily, "You make all the wrong faces, and sounds."

He jabbed it again, hard, in the throat. It screamed.

"Wait! Wait! I didn't even kill him!" The corpse said, and Knockout considered this.

"I don't care," he said finally, and jabbed it again.

He dropped the prod and tore at the torso plating with clinical ferver, precise and careful, but with enthusiasm. He considered its words again. It had been right, after all. The thing in Breakdown's body had not killed him. It had done awful things to him, but it had not killed him.

Technically, Airachnid had been the one to kill him, but as he tore through the last layer of armour, exposing the terrified parasite within, it occurred to him that Megatron could have sent Soundwave after her.

Should have sent Soundwave.

Could have sent then somewhere she would not have had the advantage.

Could have sent Vehicon troopers as backup.

Could have just killed her himself.

He ripped what was left of the parasite from Breakdown's remains. It didn't belong there. He was grateful, however, that its pathetic shrieking stopped once it had been removed.

He stood, leaned back into the bay and picked up the welder from the table. Airachnid may have technically been the one to extinguish his spark, but the Decepticons had killed him. Megatron had let this thing wear his skin like something from a human horror film.

He walked out of the medbay, brushing flecks of energon from his topcoat.

He was actually three quarters of the way to the way to the engine room when the alarms went off. He ignored them, however, and simply continued. A few Vehicons dotted the halls, but he had never had difficulties dispatching them before and nothing changed that now.

The engine room itself was glowing, a bright cerulean that reflected from his paint in a way that gave him pause, distracted by the elegance of the colours.

He kicked the databank over, exposing a breach in the energon lines of the ship. He heard someone yelling behind him, but it didn't really matter. He lit the welder, and tossed it into the fuel tank.

The resulting explosion was instantaneous.


End file.
